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Mitigating the 'digital divide'

Most Strategies for Hope books published since 2004 can be freely downloaded from this website.  However, they cannot be printed out.  The reason for this is simple: we need to sell as many copies of our books as possible because we use the income from sales to help pay for the free distribution of our materials to people who cannot afford to purchase them. 

It is often assumed by those with good internet access that everyone else can easily download and print out books and manuals.  The reality is very different.  In fact internet access is characterised by a ‘Digital Divide’, in which the ‘haves’ have access to computers, the internet, printers, paper, ink cartridges and adequate supplies of electricity, and the ‘have-nots’ have none or very few of these things. 

A recent OECD report describes the Digital Divide as “the gap that exists between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies and their use on the internet”. 

The Strategies for Hope Trust is dedicated to mitigating the divisive effects of the Digital Divide by making our materials available, free of charge, to those - especially in sub-Saharan Africa - who have limited or no access to the internet, and cannot afford to purchase our materials. 

Since December 1989, when we began producing and distributing information and training materials on HIV, gender and related issues, well over 1 million copies of these materials have been distributed - mostly free of charge, and mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.  Several thousand copies have also been sold, and the income from these sales has enabled us to distribute several thousand more copies to people who otherwise would not have received them.

Just as with climate change and the environment, we believe that it behoves all of us to accept our collective responsibility to make the world a better place for all - not just for a privileged few.  For the time being, this means that we must continue to ask those who can afford to buy our materials to pay for them, thereby supporting those who cannot. 

We shall also continue to rely on organisational and individual donors to help maintain the free distribution of our materials - please click here